Jason Alan Kilar (/ˈkaɪlər/; born April 26, 1971) is an American businessman. He was the CEO of WarnerMedia from May 2020 to April 2022. He was previously the founding CEO of Hulu, the co-founder and CEO of Vessel, and an early Amazon senior executive.
Early Life
Kilar was born on April 26, 1971, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has 3 older brothers and two younger sisters. 3 of the 6 Kilar children were adopted at an early age. His family moved to Boca Raton, Florida, during his junior year of high school where he graduated salutatorian from Spanish River Community High School in 1989. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he studied at the university's undergraduate business school and at the university's school of media & journalism. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1993 and continued his education at Harvard Business School, earning an MBA in 1997.
Business Career
Kilar began his career with The Walt Disney Company in 1992, securing an internship with the company after penning a comic strip where he was the central character. His first position after graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill in May 1993 was as a production assistant on the movie The River Wild. He then went to work for The Walt Disney Company before entering business school in 1995.
Kilar served as an executive for Amazon from 1997 to 2006, including as the senior vice president of its worldwide application software division. One of Kilar’s earliest assignments at Amazon in 1997 was to research and author the business plan for Amazon’s entry into the video category. Kilar would go on to become the General Manager of Amazon’s North American books, music, and video businesses. Kilar was then promoted to run Worldwide Application Software (which included Amazon's Marketplace businesses and the original designs for Amazon Prime and Fulfillment by Amazon). Kilar helped found the streaming company Hulu in 2007 and became its chief executive officer (CEO). Hulu grew rapidly from its launch in October 2007, achieving over $1 billion in revenue in its sixth full year of operation. One of the things that Kilar emphasized at Hulu was culture and how it could be an important driver of a team's success. Kilar authored Hulu's original cultural document, What Defines Hulu. Kilar also penned a widely read essay in February 2011 laying out his views on the future of television. Though the essay was seen by many as controversial at the time, over the ensuing 10 years, the industry evolved largely as Kilar had predicted. Today, Hulu is valued at over $27.5 billion. On January 4, 2013, Kilar announced his resignation from the company after over five years, together with Hulu CTO Rich Tom. The next month, Kilar joined the board of directors for DreamWorks Animation.
In 2014, he announced Vessel, a subscription video service, where he was CEO and backed by investment companies Benchmark, Greylock Partners, and Bezos Expeditions until the service was eventually sold to Verizon Communications in 2016.
On April 1, 2020, WarnerMedia's then-CEO John Stankey announced that Kilar would be assuming the role effective May 1, 2020. In December 2020, amid the global Covid pandemic, Kilar announced that Warner Bros. films released in 2021 would be released on the HBO Max streaming service in the US market at the same time as they were released in theaters. The prior practice was to release films to theaters for a 90-day exclusive period before releasing them in other formats. The move was decried by many in Hollywood, including Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve, while also being described as plainly violating the contractual rights of some of those who worked on the films. Kilar publicly defended the move, stating that the move was limited to 2021 during the pandemic (when many theaters were either closed or at government-mandated reduced capacity) and that the move ensured that Warner Bros, unlike any other studio that year, provided theaters a full slate of movies along with full marketing support. By the end of 2021, parent company WarnerMedia earned the highest revenues in the history of the businesses to that point in time. The Batman, the first movie released in 2022 after Covid had eased (and the Covid release strategy had ended), was given an exclusive theatrical release before being made available on HBO Max.
Kilar’s strategy as CEO of WarnerMedia took the company directly to consumers on a global basis, across entertainment, gaming, and news. Jason led the company during the launch and rapid global expansion of HBO Max (the service launched in 61 markets within 22 months). In 2020, HBO Max added more subscribers than HBO had added in the previous decade. Kilar’s tenure was in part defined by investment in the company’s storytelling, gaming, and technology businesses, resulting in the highest revenues (over $35 billion) in the 99-year history of the businesses that comprised WarnerMedia at that time. In recognition of its 2021/22 creative slate, WarnerMedia was awarded more than any other company at each of the industry’s 10 major events in 2022 (Oscars, Emmys, BAFTAs, Directors Guild Awards, Writers Guild Awards, Producers Guild Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Critics Choice, AFI, and Golden Globes). Two of the games developed under Kilar's tenure, Hogwarts Legacy and Harry Potter: Magic Awakened, became among the company's largest performers to date. Diversity at the company increased under Kilar’s leadership, with 41% of Warner’s 30,000-person team being people of color.
Kilar announced on April 5, 2022, that he would be stepping down as the WarnerMedia CEO at the close of the soon-to-be-completed merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, Inc. Notable movies and series that were in production or post-production (but had yet to be released) at the time of Kilar’s departure included Barbie, Elvis, Wonka, Dune 2, The Last of Us (Season 1), House of the Dragon (Season 1), Succession (Season 4), and Ted Lasso (Season 3).
Kilar has guest lectured at Stanford Business School, Harvard Business School, UNC-Chapel Hill, NYU, and the University of Pennsylvania. Kilar is a listed inventor on 9 patents related to digital media and digital advertising technologies. In December 2022 and December 2023, Kilar wrote essays on streaming media for The Wall Street Journal and Variety.
Kilar has appeared in or been covered by CBS This Morning, Charlie Rose, Forbes, Fortune, New York Times, USA Today, Time, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, Wired, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly, Economist, MSNBC, NPR, Fox Business News, BBC, Fast Company, and The New Yorker.
Recognition
December 2008: 25 Smartest People in TV by Entertainment Weekly
December 2008: Advertising Age People Who Made Their Mark
January 2009: TechCrunch Best Startup CEO (runner-up, to Mark Zuckerberg)
February 2009: Featured on the cover of Fast Company in connection with Hulu being named the 3rd most innovative company that year
October 2009: Fortune Magazine 40 under 40
October 2009: Huffington Post Game Changers in Media
October 2010: Distinguished Young Alumnus Award, UNC-Chapel Hill
2009, 2010: Vanity Fair New Establishment
November 2010: UNC Kenan Flagler Business School Alumni Merit Award
January 2012: The Hollywood Reporter Digital Power 50
2012-13: Executive Committee of The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
April 2013: North Carolina Media & Journalism Hall of Fame
May 2015: UNC-Chapel Hill Commencement Speaker
December 2020: Variety500
Philanthropy
Kilar served on the board of Management Leadership for Tomorrow for over 10 years between 1998-2008 and served on the board of Habitat for Humanity International from March 2018 until November 2020. Kilar also served on UNC-Chapel Hill’s General Alumni Association Board of Directors for a 3-year term, beginning in 2016. Kilar serves on the Board of Advisors for the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism & Media.